One day, I shall come back
by BritishAlien
Summary: The Doctor is wandering. Seeing where the winds of time take him. He sits at his work bench and passes time away. Until one day he lands somewhere very familiar and stumbles back into the life of someone he thought he would never see again. Thank you for reading. xxx
1. Chapter 1

_Hold me close and hold me fast__  
__The magic spell you cast__  
__This is la vie en rose_

The sweet melody of Louis Armstrong and his band waltzed along the corridors of the little blue spacecraft from another world. The music was being amplified through a special modification that had been made to the TARDIS' speaker system which the Doctor had rigged up in the aftermath of his visit to one of the Gagralakan Mind Zones where he had accidentally crashed a Disaster Area concert by landing in the middle of the main stage during one of their biggest and loudest hits which had fractured the previous system into a billion pieces. The new system in the TARDIS allowed the soft, magical music to float from room to room and could be controlled from wherever the Doctor happened to be. If you followed the music, its origin could be traced back to a gramophone which sat somewhat precariously on a small wooden table below the main hub of the console room. The lights in the room had been dimmed so that the main source was coming from a rickety old lamp below. It stood on a wooden desk at which the Time Lord was busy at work.

'When you kiss me, heaven sighs, and though I close my eyes, I see la vie en rose…' The Doctor sang under his breath. He would never allow himself to hum a simple tune, let alone sing, when someone else was aboard the TARDIS. But now that he was alone and just wandering, seeing where the winds of time took him, he would catch himself singing now and again without fear of being interrupted and laughed at. This had all resulted from the time the Doctor had been singing Sunshine of Your Love by Cream only to realise that Clara had been stood listening at the entrance to the TARDIS all along. She hadn't laughed so much as enquired who he'd had lessons from: Elvis or Nana Mouskouri? At the time he had attempted to effortlessly shrug it off and say both but he'd always been careful in case Clara caught him again. Ah, Clara. It had been a while since he'd last seen or even thought of her. The Doctor had been wandering for a while now. He had left Clara back on Earth thinking that he had gone to find Gallifrey to be a King or a Queen or something. Indeed, he had left, but knowing full well that Gallifrey, for him at least, was still missing. The Masters' coordinates had not proven fruitful and after a long time being angry and letting out his rage on the firing ranges of Azengard, and becoming the holder of the title of Best Flinklock shot in the region, he had come to a point in this life where he just wanted to aimlessly wander. He would set the coordinates to random and see where he ended up. The TARDIS would land on some world on a random date and inevitably he would tether himself to that world whilst he got on with whatever needed to be done. Every so often he would check the date, out of interest, to see if anything would lure him out of his stupor, but nothing ever really did.

At present, he was working on a small piece of equipment that he had found on Azengard in the remains of a starship that had crashed into the principal dockyard. The piece looked out of time and more accustomed to something George Stephenson would have invented, let alone on a space craft from the 87th century. He had been able to take the device apart until it left in seven detachable pieces. He had cleaned every piece until the bronze lustre that had hidden under the grime shone through. Now it was just a matter of getting the thing back into one piece and working out what it did and why it had been on the starship.

Suddenly, he heard a timid knock come from above him. The Doctor sat up straight and stared in the direction of the front door of the TARDIS console room. Ever since he had been greeted by the frightful presence of Rodney Stench he was wary of any unexpected knocks on the door. On a previous wandering, he had landed in Whitechapel in 1957. He had just been about to set sail into the time vortex when the front door had flown open and a gruff middle aged man had been thrown into the console room.

'Now stay there whilst I go and get back up. You lousy piece of crap.' Shouted a voice from outside the TARDIS as the door was slammed shut on the bewildered man. The Doctor stood and stared at him as his eyes began to trace every detail of the console room. After a few seconds, the intruder spoke.

'Are they all like this now?' Rodney asked.

'All like what?' The Doctor asked, taking steps to stand between the man and his beloved console.

'Well, police boxes. Thems I've been in ain't been all nice and done up like this. This ones in pretty good nick.' Rodney said, barging past the Doctor, looking at the console, deciding which button to press first.

'I can assure you that there isn't another police box like this anywhere in London.' The Doctor replied, batting the man's hand away from his previous console.

'Now that I can believe.' He sniffed, rubbing his nose along his shirt jacket. 'Name's Rodney by the way. Rodney Stench.' Rodney offered out a hand to shake, which the Doctor hastily dipped away from as he walked to the console room door. He poked his head out the door and saw that he had landed in a dingy courtyard. It was dark and smog covered the large amount of the space, but the Doctor could just see the bobby walking leisurely away from the police box. The Doctor sighed before pulling himself back into the TARDIS to find that Rodney had snuck up behind him ''as he gone?'

'What?'

'The copper? 'As he gone?' The Doctor didn't reply and went to the console to see if Rodney had touched anything. 'So what's your name? I mean, if we're gonna be cell mates as it were I should like to know what kinda company I'm keeping.' This still did not garner a reply from the Doctor who started to polish one of the panels of the console with a handkerchief drawn from his inside pocket. The panel was covered in murky finger prints and the Doctor tried to flash Rodney his most patronising glare. 'Alright, then, Mr Owl-brows. What did you get caught doing?' This was a step too much for the Doctor.

'Earthlings! Sometimes I wonder why I even bother with this pathetic little planet.' With this the Doctor strode over to Rodney and caught his collar and coat arm between his hands. The Doctor had dragged the protesting London towards the exit. Eager to draw an end to their acquaintance.

'Oi. Watcha doing? Hold on a cotton pickin'…' but before Rodney could finish his sentence, the Doctor had opened the TARDIS door and thrown the man out of it.

'Call it a first warning. Now hop it.' And the Doctor closed the door behind him and took off as fast as possible. Ever since then he had locked the door from the console. He didn't want to risk another Rodney Stench blundering into the TARDIS. Thoughts past and his mind was soon brought back to the present matter when the knock resounded again. This was different from last time. This was not a rough, abrupt, rude kind of knocking. This one knocked politely and kept doing so.

'Sorry Louis. Maybe next time.' The Doctor said as he took the needle from up from the record and the whisper of La Vie en Rose fell into silence. The Doctor stood from his desk and ascended the stairs to the main console level. He went to stand as near to the front doors as he dared. He cautiously began to edge his way towards the door when he heard an all too familiar voice. One he had not heard in a very long time.

'Grandfather, I know you're in there. Let me in.'


	2. Chapter 2

No, please no! Anyone but her. Even Rodney Stench would have been preferable company to his granddaughter. He hadn't heard her voice in centuries and he hadn't really thought of her either. There had been stuff to do, he had been moving on because he had to. But here she was.

'Grandfather?' He could hear her laugh to herself as she, no doubt, thought of that crotchety old man that he used to be bumbling around the console room. 'What's the TARDIS doing here?'

Ahead lay a decision and a pretty important one from where the Doctor was standing. He could remain silent. Hopefully get her to think it was just an ordinary police box and get on with her day, no doubt heading back to her version of the Doctor where she would relate her tale and he would regard it as nothing more than fanciful claptrap. The Doctor, however, pushed that potential far from his mind as soon as he could. The TARDIS hummed with life. If Wright and Chatterton…no, wait, Chesterton could sense it, then Susan would be more than just aware, she'd be drawn to it. Something so recognisable in this alien world would not be easy to resist. He knew the lure of the TARDIS better than anyone. The Doctor at this point turned to the console and found the chronometer. The date was 20th November 1963. A few mere days before Ian and Barbara had followed Susan back to the TARDIS and their wild adventures had begun. This was the Susan who was still devoted to her grandfather; the pair of them had only each other in this strange world. They had escaped from Gallifrey and were glad to be rid of it, but at that time they could never have considered themselves truly alone. Gallifrey still existed and the Time Lords were intent on holding the strict framework of reality in check, with them at the top controlling all the strings.

But now, in a similar way, the Doctor could recognise that feeling. He and the Master were, as far as he was aware, the last two children of Gallifrey left, or at least the only ones off world. Despite the events in which they had met in recent times, seeing the Master again had made the burden of loneliness weigh lighter upon his shoulders. He wasn't so alone anymore. They had fought and she had manipulated the lives of those around him to an unimaginable extent, but still, they were children of the same world, walking from the ashes of their home out into the universe. And all they had was each other.

Susan and her Doctor weren't very dissimilar. They had fled their world, thinking it desolate and lost to the power hungry that then ruled the planet. They had ran out to the universe which had welcomed them into the safety of everything. But now, on this planet, they were all each other had. The TARDIS was so recognisable to her in spite of the chameleon circuit, which at that time had still been functional. She would never leave whilst there was a possibility to see her Doctor. Especially now that the silence had been so long.

By denouncing the first option, there remained two paths left to him. He could just dematerialise, keep her thinking it was the TARDIS and again have her question her Doctor when she blundered into the police box in the junkyard. Again, remembering his past self now all too clearly, he knew he would dismiss Susan's mutterings and send her to do her work.

The other option was to let her in. Susan could be persistent when she wanted to be and knew exactly how to wind the old man round her little finger. The Doctor knew that even though centuries had passed and he was a very different man, she would still hold that power over him. She was so special to him and the urge to just open the doors and embrace her was overpowering, but he couldn't mess with her timeline, especially now he knew that their mad adventures were yet to start for her. So much was still yet to happen for her and he couldn't allow that to be forfeit to his petty will. He remembered how Susan was so excited to have found some place to stay longer than a few weeks. They had often had to leave because the Doctor had been wary that, when those on Gallifrey discovered their absence, they would be hunted. It had always been a fear at the back of his mind. He had never told Susan the whole truth about why they had left Gallifrey. There had never come a time when that conversation seemed appropriate. Although she had willingly ran away with him, the first of many to do so, she had left her life behind. Her friends, her education, her positions of responsibility had been abandoned out of her duty towards him. She was a new exile. On Earth, she had found somewhere to belong. Whereas, now that he had been an exile for nearly two millennia, and in various capacities, he was a professional of sorts. But now, with the knowledge that Gallifrey was lost and that he had destroyed it, he knew that he was not the Grandfather she knew.

'Grandfather? I know that you're in there. Let me in, grandfather. Please...' After a few seconds of deep contemplation and a continuous wrangling between what should happen and what he wanted, his resolve caved in. He decided to be selfish. 'Grandfather?' She cried exasperated. The Doctor had already begun his walk to the right panel on the console. He flicked a switch and the door lock came off. He heard Susan sigh with relief before the door to the TARDIS opened very slowly. The squeaking hinges made the moment until he saw her again feel like an eternity away. The light from outside dipped into the TARDIS and a small figure stepped into the old spaceship.


	3. Chapter 3

He could hear each footstep as she walked into his TARDIS. The quiet figure stepped inside and without thinking, as if it were her own home, closed the door behind her. She turned, expecting to see the blazing white interior and the man she called grandfather, but instead she just stopped. She leant with her back against the doors and the Doctor watched as her eyes filled with wonder. She looked even younger than he remembered. Hearing her voice after so many centuries had sent a quiver through his hearts, but seeing her was so much more devastating. Her black bob haircut and her inquiring eyes awoke memories that he had kept hidden for so long. He tried not to show it on his face, but all he could feel was a serene sense of longing. He wanted to leap towards her and cradle her in his arms. A feeling he had not experienced in this body or at least one that he had not actively sought out. Her eyes jumped around the console room before finally settling on the Doctor. There was a sharp intake of breath as if she'd only just noticed him standing there.

'Wrong box.' She stated. Her eyes had filled with terror, but she didn't move from her position leaning against the TARDIS doors. The Doctor didn't know how to respond or know whether he should. One wrong word could change both of their futures and the lives of countless others. 'I was looking for my grandfather…' She answered the unasked question, no doubt one that was brewing in her mind but had never made it to speech. 'But I appear to have mistaken your police box for his. Sincerest apologies. Won't happen again.' Her breathing was laboured as if she were being told off at school. She was the epitome of a school child waiting to be told off.

'There's absolutely no need.' The Doctor perked up. His voice was a little unsteady at first but he tried to maintain his cool. He watched as her eyes scanned the rest of room and she stepped forward from the doors. Her fear was beginning to fade, but she was rightly wary of both the ship and the main she'd run into.

'Your ship is beautiful. Like nothing I've ever seen before. My grandfather would be envious.' The Doctor smirked. No he wouldn't. He'd have called all this unnecessary decoration. The simple, old white model was much more his style.

'Well, it isn't for everyone, but I'm becoming rather fond of it.' The Doctor smiled, trying to gain eye contact with Susan, but her sudden decision to circle the console put a stop to that. 'What's your name?' The Doctor queried.

'Why do you want to know that for?' Susan asked, somewhat taken aback.

'Just curious.' He knew her name. He'd always known it, since she was born. He'd treasured it in those days when they had travelled together and those once she had left to be with David. Her name had reassured him that he was not alone in the universe. Not really. There was silence. She continued to circle the room and as she came closer to the Doctor, he started taking deep breaths in order control his actions even more. He watched her glide by and towards the panel next to his. Her eyes darted over the instruments before a sudden sadness fell over her face. 'What is it?'

'You're a Time Lord, aren't you?' She enquired timidly. The Doctor nodded. 'Who sent you?'

'Who sent me?'

'It's alright. I know who you are. Was it the CIA? Or was it Hedin? He'd be sure to notice something was wrong.' Susan appeared to be very calm if she was insinuating what he thought she was.

'I'm afraid I don't know what you m…' The Doctor pressed, wanting to assure her that she and her Doctor were safe.

'You've been sent to call my grandfather back to Gallifrey.' Susan said bluntly.

'I insist that I am just a traveller. Passing through.' He raised his hands as if to show her he was hiding nothing up his sleeves.

'Take me.' The Doctor furrowed his brows.

'What?'

'In return for my grandfather's freedom. He doesn't have time to spare these days. Let me take his place. You can tell your masters that the Doctor got away but you managed to capture me instead. Please, anything that would keep my grandfather safe.' Susan had stepped closer to the Doctor and stared right into his eyes. The Doctor had to step away. He was afraid she would hold his hand or sense their relation.

'I'm not here to recall your grandfather. There is nothing that I would like more than for him to keep his freedom.' Sincerely, his freedom had allowed him to do so much. 'I promised you that I am passing through. And I stick to that promise young lady.' Susan stared shocked at the last turn of phrase as much as the Doctor was himself. He had not intended to say that, but it had just kind of come out. A natural response considering who he was talking to. She stepped towards him and turned him to face her. _This is it. _The Doctor thought._ The truth revealed._

'Who are you?' She whispered, begging with her eyes. The Doctor wanted to tell her outright. He wanted to reveal the truth and be able to embrace his granddaughter like any other grandfather could, without fear. But he knew it was not that easy. He had to choose what was right, not what he wanted. He had already been selfish enough by allowing her into the TARDIS. He broke eye contact and strode towards the doors. He peaked his head out of the TARDIS to see that it had grown dark outside. He closed the door behind and walked back up to the main console.

'It's getting dark out. I don't think your grandfather would be too pleased if you were to get home late. There's danger in these streets. Never know who could be around. It's best you head home.' The Doctor said, staring down at a handful of instruments on the panel in front of him. He couldn't bring himself to look at Susan. He had to get her out of there.

'But what about…'

'Forget that this ever happened.' The Doctor snapped. 'I was never here. Do you understand?'

'Can I not know who you are?' The Doctor stood in silence. His back towards the open doors, he sensed as Susan brushed past him and towards the door. He heard the squeak of the hinges as they opened onto the evening air. Something suddenly took him by surprise and span round to call after his granddaughter.

'Susan?' The girl stopped in her tracks just as she was about to leave. 'He doesn't tell you enough, but he appreciates everything that you do for him and he loves you very much. And there are days, there are many days, when he regrets that he didn't say it enough.' Susan's eyes began to well up. She had realised the truth. She closed the door behind her and bounded straight at the Doctor, throwing her arms around him. The hug is tight and filled with so much love. The Doctor didn't know how to react at first, but after a few seconds, with her cradled in shadow, he hesitantly allowed himself to lapse into a calm, quiet hug. They remained still in that hug for what seemed like an eternity. She reached up and kissed his cheek, watching his reaction as he draws one hand up to the cheek. She smiled and pulled away from him, wiping her glistening eyes with her sleeve. She ran back to the TARDIS doors with a spring in her step. She pulled the doors fully open, ready to advance on the world with a new confidence, but the Doctor had to shout after her. 'Not a word, remember?' Susan smiled and nodded her understanding. She waved one last time at her grandfather before slipping out of the console room and shutting the door behind her. It was like she had never been there. The Doctor stared at the closed door and thought about what had happened. A memory had wandered back into his life, so vibrant and so full of energy. It was like she'd never been left behind. She was his beautiful Susan.

But he could not stay to dwell in this place. He would never leave if he did. The Doctor turned back to the console and started waltzing around the room, plotting in coordinates and setting the TARDIS in flight before descending to the lower floor in the console room. He sat back down at his workbench and began to put the pieces of the brass object back together. The silence in the room did not fit his mood and so he reached over to the gramophone and placed the needle back on the record and allows Louis to sing him into space.

_When you press me to your heart__  
__I'm in a world apart__  
__A world where roses bloom___

_And when you speak...angels sing from above__  
__Everyday words seem...to turn into love songs___

_Give your heart and soul to me__  
__And life will always be__  
__La vie en rose_


End file.
